May Day

 My first May Day on Facebook

1 May 2009 at 08:39 ·

Got up at 3.45, got Thunderthighs up, got coffee/ginger-nuts/juice and then got out to the Town Moor to dance at dawn. 

Lovely red sunrise, real "Rosy fingered dawn has thrown the stone that puts the night to flight" (the Obayat of Omar Kayaam for the non-cognoscenti)

1 May 2009 at 10:12

I’m not as erudite as I think I am. "Rosy-fingered Dawn" is an epithet from Homer's Odyssey not the Rubaiyat of Omar Kayaam.

Miss Fiddle  I wouldn't know - I'm even less erudite!

Bentonbag  I googled

Ms Exlibris  I don't even know what erudite means

Bentonbag  And you a trained librarian. 

Ms Exlibris  I only put the books on the shelf I don't read them!

Bentonbag  Do you get stamper's wrist like Phil did?

Ms Exlibris  Not any more, computers put paid to that but certainly used to.   

Do you think there is a condition called Librarians Wrist?

Bentonbag  If there's Housemaid's Knee, Tennis Elbow and Jogger's Nipple there certainly should be.

1 May 2009 at 13:40 ·

I have been wearing a dress today in honour of May Day, but am now going to change into trousers and do some gardening before it rains.

Not taken on May Day morning

1 May 2009 at 22:47 ·

Have just had a shouting match with Fester.   

Me downstairs trying to ascertain whether Felix is in or out.  

Him upstairs thinking I was referring to Ferretfingers (homophonic ?). 

Culminating in him bellowing 

"What's he doing out?" 

and me screaming 

"He's a bloody cat!”

The Spanish Battery

The Spanish Battery, a cliffy promontory at the mouth of the Tyne, has always been a favourite spot for our family.

The photo is one I took of Mum and Dad there back in 1970 (hence the quality).

After a weekend afternoon visit to his Dad’s, Phil and I would eat a take-away there (usually but not always fish and chips).

Whatever the weather, whether the windows are wound down when it’s warm, or even not so warm, to hear the waves or up to keep out the wind, sitting in a car looking out between the piers helps sooth my soul.

From Facebook Archives

Monday 30 April 2018

Early this morning I got a phone call from the day centre.  Their minibus’s windows had been put out overnight, might I be able to bring Ferretfingers in myself?  As I had an optometrist’s appointment at 10.10, and it’s on the way there was no problem.  I also brought him home at 3pm because there was no way the windows were going to be replaced the same day, as they’d hoped.  Thunderthighs came with me for the ride. 

There’s a load of road-works going on the Coast Road, including replacing Norham Road road bridge over it.  You can turn towards the coast at the bridge, but to come back here I’d have either had to wend my way up through Shiremoor or head coastwards and find a way of turning around.

When Ferretfingers got in the car I asked whether we should go home or to the coast. 

No choice really. 

So I drove up onto the Spanish Battery and we sat there looking out between the piers, and had an ice-cream. 

The sea wasn’t so much angry as having a nervous breakdown.  The wind was fierce and constantly changing so no sooner did a wave decide which way it was going than another slapped it in the face and sent it in a different direction.  White horses right out to the horizon and spume flying up when a roller hit the pier. 

Ferretfingers gurgled with glee when we went to the ice cream van, he loves being buffeted by the wind.

Hairy Moment

 From Facebook archives…

29 April 2013 at 17:04

Just brought Ferretfingers  back from the barbers and he asked for "Uncle Stephen's* electric razor" 

(which the boys use for their occasional shaves)

When we asked him why he said "For my bald"

We assured him that with his genes he was going to go bald soon enough.

But I'm going to keep an eye on the razor and made a dash if I hear any buzzing.

Strawangel  Bloody hell B, that's all you need, for him to shave his barnet! 😀

KA  Boys will be boys! lol

*RIP June 2012

See also:-

A Close Shave

Lockdown Locks Blues 

 

Social Work Service

This post and thread from Facebook Archives is seven years old.

Things have not improved.

Ferretfingers' Social Worker was replaced with an Enablement Officer, whose main task seems to be doing the paperwork.  

During the unpleasantness of the past two years annual reviews, which in normal times theoretically required at least one face to face meeting and signing off of relevant paperwork, were replaced with a phonecall 

"Everything ok with you?...Good...We'll just leave things as they are then."  

Understandable but not exactly the best way to monitor and protect a potentially vulnerable person.

This, by the way, is not a criticism of the front line staff, who are doing their best in an under-resourced, over-strained and byzantinely bureaucratic system.

Currently the paperwork is undergoing yet another revamp.  

The EO assures me this "is to make things simpler."  

I don't think either of us are convinced.

28 April 2015 at 10:08 ·

Hoorah

The Social Worker just rang to say Ferretfingers’ Support Plan has been approved so he can now go to The Rising Sun Farm on Fridays as well as Independent Lives on Thursdays.

I'd be slightly more impressed if:-

a) he hadn't needed this extra day since last September

b) I hadn't first contacted Adult Social Care warning them he'd need another day last June

c) his previous budget was from Oct 13 to Oct 14 - but was considerably underspent so services carried on unquestioned by anybody.

d) I found out about, filled in the forms and requested the Rising Sun provision in February.

What an ingrate I am...

... and I've just had a call from the farm to say he can start Friday!

May Day - the day for new beginnings

Mrs Leftfoot  Great. Are we going out on the Moor then for sunrise?

Bentonbag  Is there an emoticon for hollow laughter?

Pink Kitchen  Hey, what you whinging about? 😉

If it helps, this social worker just did a 16 hour day to try and vaguely get caught up and I'm still no further on!

Mic Success

I had despaired of finding anything for today, until I clicked on Memories in Facebook and this came up.

I did blog about it last year but not the Facebook thread, besides which the video is worth another airing.

27 April 2021

Finally got the new microphone to work.

I should have asked Thunderthighs but I didn't know he knew!

Mrs Hoover  Awesome  It all works xx

Miss Doozer  Loving the Britney mic

Bentonbag I'd be happy with a stand alone mic* and then I wouldn't get hot ears off the headphones, but they don't seem to exist (mind you I haven't looked that hard)

Miss Doozer  You could wear the headphones round your neck and use the mic on the headset and the speakers on the computer?

Bentonbag  Only if I've got my hair up.  Getting all the cable, headset and mic-stalk all tangled up when I've got it down would be a whole world of aggravation.

Ernextdoor  Brilliant Ben xx

Bentonbag  In case anyone was wondering that Argus poster (which I've had since 1976) behind me reads "It's easy to be an angel when nobody ruffles your feathers".

Ernextdoor  To quote Hastings from Line of Duty I thought you were going to come out with his classic quote from Sunday ..."Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the wee donkey" 

 

 

 *We do now have a stand alone microphone which has made zoomeetings a lot easier.

Woodpigeon v Squirrel

From Facebook archives

26 April 2010 at 19:03 ·

We had wild woodpigeon casserole for tea:  

I can't decide whether I liked it better than the wild grey squirrel or not.

White Rose  Squirrel?

Mrs Treasurer  Ben - did your boys eat the woodpigeon?.  I can just imagine the reaction in my house!

Bentonbag:- White Rose - There's a game stall on the Quayside Market that sells all sorts.  Wild grey squirrels from Hexham culled under the Save our Red Squirrel scheme; £4 for something half the size of a rabbit but very tasty casseroled with onions and root veg.

Mrs Treasurer - Thunderthighs had a taste of both and said the pigeon was "not bad" which for him is high praise.  The pigeons were 4 for £10 and Fester and I had one each and two in the freezer.  The boys had pizza but it was the veg not the meat that put them off.

White Rose  Oh no! Grey squirrels in Hexham.  They hadn't got that far when I left in 2000.

Bentonbag  Fret not.  Some Northumbrian nobleman has hired a gamekeeper/hitman and they have traps all over the county.  They've killed tens of thousands of greys in the past few years and they are gradually gaining ground.  There was an article about them in the Observer last year.  As well as killing greys they've developed markets for their meat, which pays for the hitman, traps and bullets - so it's a virtuous circle.  Once they've got Northumberland clear they're going to move out.  My brother says something similar has been happening in Anglesey where they've cleared the island of greys and are staring to work out across North Wales.  The meat is has a unique but pleasant flavour, low in fat and probably organic - and it's nice to know the animal you're eating lead a natural life.

White Rose How reassuring. In no time at all the reds will be back.  I hope...